Origin

The use of the term "Easter egg" to describe secret features originates from the 1979 video game Adventure for the Atari 2600 game console, programmed by employee Warren Robinett. At the time, Atari did not include programmers' names in the game credits, fearing that competitors would attempt to steal their employees. Robinett, who disagreed with his supervisor over this lack of acknowledgment, secretly inserted the message "Created by Warren Robinett". This message would only appear if a player moved his/her avatar over a specific pixel (the "Gray Dot") during a certain part of the game. When Robinett left Atari, he did not inform the company of the acknowledgment that he included in the game. Shortly after his departure, the Gray Dot and his message were exposed by a player who told Atari about his discovery. Atari's management initially wanted to remove the message and release the game again, but this was deemed too costly an effort. Instead, Steve Wright, the Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, suggested that they keep the message and, in fact, encourage the inclusion of such messages in future games, describing them as Easter eggs for consumers to find.[4][5][6][7]

In video games

In addition to Robinett's name appearing in Adventure (1979), there are many other instances where the Easter egg idea has been implemented. The first text adventure game, Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), from which Adventure was fashioned, included several secret words. One of these was "xyzzy", a command which enabled the player to move between two points in the game world.[8] In 2004, an Easter egg displaying programmer Bradley Reid-Selth's surname was found in Video Whizball (1978), a game for the Fairchild Channel F system.[2] According to research by Ed Fries, the first known Easter egg in an arcade game was in Starship 1 (1977), programmed by Ron Milner. By triggering the cabinet's controls in the right order, the player could get the message "Hi Ron!" to appear on the screen. Fries described it as "the earliest arcade game yet known that clearly meets the definition of an Easter egg". The existence of this Easter egg wasn't published until 2017, leading Fries to suggest that, as more than one hundred arcade games predate Starship 1, earlier Easter eggs may still be undiscovered.[9][10] Fries noted that some Atari arcade cabinets were resold under the Kee Games label and included changes to the hardware that would make the game appear different from the Atari version. Anti-Aircraft II (1975) included a means to modify the circuit board to make the airplanes in the game appear as alien UFOs. Fries surmised that this feature may have been intended for a Kee Games release. For this reason, and because it required a hardware modification, Fries questioned whether it met the definition of an Easter egg.[10]

Since Adventure, there has been a long history of video game developers placing Easter eggs in their games.[11]:19 Most Easter eggs are intentional - an attempt to communicate with the player or a way of getting even with management for a slight. Easter eggs in video games have taken a variety of forms, from purely ornamental screens to aesthetic enhancements that change some element of the game during play. The Easter egg included in the original Age of Empires (1997) is an example of the latter; catapult projectiles are changed from stones to cows.[11]:19

More elaborate Easter eggs include secret levels and developers' rooms - fully functional, hidden areas of the game. Developers' rooms often include inside jokes from the fandom or development team and differ from a debug room in that they are specifically intended for the player to find. Some games even include hidden minigames as Easter eggs. In the LucasArts game Day of the Tentacle (1993), the original Maniac Mansion (1987) game can be played in its full version by using a home computer in a character's room.[12][13]

Other Easter eggs originated unintentionally. The Konami Code, a type of cheat code, became an intentional Easter egg in most games, but originated from Konami's Gradius (1985) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The programmer, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, created the code as a means to rapidly debug the game by giving the player's avatar additional health and powers to easily traverse the game. These types of codes are normally removed from the game before it is shipped but, in the case of Gradius, Hashimoto forgot to remove it and the code was soon discovered by players. Its popularity inspired Konami to reuse the code and purposely retain it for many of its future games as an Easter egg.[2][12][14]

Technical issues may also create unintentional Easter eggs. Jon Burton, founder of Traveller's Tales, announced that many seemingly apparent Easter eggs in their Sega Genesis games came about as a result of introducing programming tricks to get around some of the difficulty they had in getting Sega's strict certification for their games, catching any exceptions during execution to bring the game back to a usable state as to pass certification. For example, hitting the side of the Sonic 3D Blast (1996) cartridge while it was slotted in the console would bring the game back to the Level Select screen, which Burton explained was the default exception handling for any unidentified processor error, such as when connectivity between the cartridge and the console's microprocessor was temporarily lost.[15]

In computing

Software

Asking Google Maps for walking directions between fictional locations from The Lord of the Rings produced this "Easter egg" response, quoting a character's warning from the story.[16]

In computer software, Easter eggs are secret responses that occur as a result of an undocumented set of commands. The results can vary from a simple printed message or image to a page of programmer credits or a small video game hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software.

The Debian operating system's package tool apt-get has an Easter egg involving an ASCII cow when variants on apt-get moo are typed into the shell.[22][23][24]

An Easter egg is found on all Microsoft Windows operating systems before XP. In the 3D Text screen saver, entering the text "volcano" would display the names of all the volcanoes in the United States. Microsoft removed this Easter egg in XP but added others.[25]Microsoft Excel 95 contained a hidden action game similar to Doom (1993) called The Hall of Tortured Souls.[26]

Several oscilloscopes contain Easter eggs. One example is the HP 54600B, known to have a Tetris (1984) clone,[34] and the HP 54622D contains an imitation of the Asteroids (1979) game named Rocks.[35] Another is the Tektronix 1755A Vector and Waveform Monitor which displays swimming fish when Remote>Software version is selected on the CONFIG menu.[36]

In the second and third hardware revision of the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9 SLR camera, including all SSM/ADI upgraded cameras, an undocumented button sequence can be utilized to reconfigure the camera to behave like the Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9Ti and subsequently invoke support for the limited model's extra functions also in the black model.[citation needed]

Many integrated circuit (chip) designers have included hidden graphics elements termed chip art, including images, phrases, developer initials, logos, and more. This artwork, like the rest of the chip, is reproduced in each copy by lithography and etching. These are visible only when the chip package is opened and examined under magnification.[citation needed] The 1984 CVAX microchip implementation of the MicroVAX CPU contained in its etchings the Russian phrase in the Cyrillic alphabet "VAX: When you care enough to steal the very best", placed there because, "knowing that some CVAXs would end up in the USSR, the team wanted the Russians to know that we were thinking of them".[citation needed]

Comics

American comic book artists are known to include hidden messages in their art:[42]

In 2000, Al Milgrom inserted a message into Universe X: Spidey #1 insulting his previous boss, Marvel Editor in Chief Bob Harras, following Harras' termination from Marvel Comics. On Page 28, panel 3, the spines of books on a bookshelf in the background read, "HARRAS HA HA, HE'S GONE, GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH HE WAS A NASTY S.O.B." The message was spotted after the book was printed but before it went on sale; the copies that were printed for consumers were destroyed. However, 4,000 preview copies were distributed to retailers as part of a "First Look" deal, and these are today considered rare collectors' items. Milgrom was "apparently fired and allegedly (and quietly) re-hired several weeks later".[43][44][45]

Ethan Van Sciver hid the word "sex" in the background of nearly every page of New X-Men #118 (November 2001).[43][46] Van Sciver subsequently stated that he hid the word throughout the book because he was annoyed with Marvel at the time for reasons he cannot remember, and thought it would be fun to engage in some mischief with his work.[citation needed]

In April 2017, comic book artist Ardian Syaf caused an outcry with the Easter eggs he placed in his art for X-Men Gold #1.

Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf is known to engage in the practice of hiding Easter egg references to political figures in the backgrounds of his artwork. In Batgirl (vol. 4) #9 (July 2012), Syaf included a storefront sign that referenced the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, although the text that accompanies the image of Widodo is covered by a caption.[43][47] In April 2017, he caused an outcry by placing Easter egg references to the November 2016 Jakarta protests into the pages of X-Men Gold #1, which were perceived by readers to be anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. Though Syaf acknowledged the political nature of the messages,[43][48] he stated that they were not intended to express any anti-Semitic nor anti-Christian sentiment on his part.[49] In response to these Easter eggs, Marvel terminated their contract with Syaf.[50]

Video

Home media

Easter eggs are found on films, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs, often as deleted scenes or bonus features.[51][52][53] Klinger states that their presence is "another signifier of artistry in the world of DVD supplements."[52] According to Berardinelli and Ebert, most DVDs do not contain them and most examples are "inconsequential", but a very few, such as the one found on the Memento DVD release, are "worth the effort to seek out".[53]

Broadcast media

Unlike DVDs and computer games, broadcast radio and television programs contain no executable code. Easter eggs may still appear in the content itself, such as a hidden Mickey in a Disney film or a real telephone number instead of a 555fictitious telephone number.[original research?] A 2014 Super Bowl advertisement was leaked online in which a lady gives a man a real telephone number, which the advertiser had hidden as a marketing ploy; the first caller to the number received a pair of tickets to the game.[54] The 1980s animated series She-Ra: Princess of Power featured a character called Loo-Kee who typically appeared once per episode, hidden in a single screenshot. At the end of the episode, the screenshot would be shown again and Loo-Kee would challenge viewers to locate him before revealing his hiding place.[55][56]

Security concerns

Security author Michel E. Kabay discussed security concerns of Easter eggs in 2000, saying that, while software quality assurance requires that all code be tested, it is not known whether Easter eggs are. He said that, as they tend to be held as programming secrets from the rest of the product testing process, a "logic bomb" could also bypass testing. Kabay asserts that this undermined the Trusted Computing Base, a paradigm of trustworthy hardware and software in place since the 1980s, and is of concern wherever personal or confidential information is stored, as this may then be vulnerable to damage or manipulation.[57] Microsoft created some of the largest and most elaborate Easter eggs, such as those in Microsoft Office.[58] In 2005, Larry Osterman of Microsoft acknowledged Microsoft Easter eggs, and his involvement in development of one, but described them as "irresponsible", and wrote that the company's Operating System division "has a 'no Easter Eggs' policy" as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative.[21]

In 2006, Douglas W. Jones said, "some Easter eggs may be intentional tools used to detect illegal copying, others are clearly examples of unauthorized functionality that has slipped through the quality-control tests at the vendor". While hidden Easter eggs themselves are harmless, it may be possible for malware to be hidden in similar ways in voting machines or other computers.[59]

Netscape Navigator contributor Jamie Zawinski stated in an interview in 1998 that harmless Easter eggs impose a negligible burden on shipped software, and serve the important purpose of helping productivity by keeping programmers happy.[60]

Easter eggs have become more widely known to the general public and are referenced in contemporary artworks. They feature as key plot devices in:

The Doctor Who episode "Blink", in which the existence of video Easter eggs across a number of DVDs leads to solving the protagonists' dilemma.

Pixar Animation Studios are known for their inclusion of multiple Easter eggs in their films, the most notable one being a faded yellow 1978 Toyota Hilux pickup that is a delivery vehicle for the fictional ''Pizza Planet'' fast food restaurant from the Toy Story franchise. The pickup, dubbed the ''Pizza Planet Truck'', appears in every Pixar film (starting with Toy Story, with the exception of The Incredibles).

The Disney Channel Original Show A.N.T. Farm had a scavenger hunt themed episode in Season 2 episode 15. In this episode, while the main characters are out on an educational scavenger hunt, the character Gibson (played by Zach Steel) is hidden in several scenes and it is the job of the viewer to find him and count the number of times they see him (or his likeness) until the end of the episode.

In the novel Ready Player One and its film adaptation, several Easter eggs are discovered in video games in a virtual reality setting, in particular highlighting the Adventure Easter egg.

In the first season of the TV sit-com The Thundermans, multiple objects or characters can be seen upside down, a prank often used by television channels for Easter egg hunts.